LIVE: The MASS MoCA Music Festival, 8/15/09

And the music?

You can go here to read my review in the Times Union.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland made the most of playing a museum. For their final selection of the afternoon, keyboardist Wyndham Boylan-Garnett left his station of vintage pump organ and harmonium, grabbed his trombone and hopped off the stage into the crowd. The crowd began running around in a circle, flapping their arms up and down like wings. With a marching band bass drum strapped over his shoulders, drummer Nick Kinsey announced, “This is contemporary art, people. Just so ya know.”

OTHER NOTES

Although her bandmates were in attendance, opening act Samantha Crain kicked off the fest with a somewhat tentative solo set in honor of her birthday. (Also celebrating his birthday on Saturday was Ben Kweller’s bassist Chris Morrissey.)

The delightfully ramshackle Elvis Perkins in Dearland served up several selections from their upcoming “Doomsday EP,” including the traditional folk fave “Gypsy Davy” and the Sacred Harp classic “Weeping Mary.”

Kaki King proved to be the most talented instrumentalist of the day – without a doubt. The diminutive guitarist sang several songs during her mid-afternoon set, but it was really all about her amazing fretwork on acoustic guitar (a brand new proto-type of the soon-to-be-available Kaki King signature model from Ovation), electric guitar and lap steel.

Troy artist Michael Oatman took a slightly different approach to describing the music of Kweller and his band, invoking “Marshall Crenshaw/Neil Young/Vampire Weekend,” as they churned through their anthemic show-closer, “Penny On the Train Track.”

Headliner Josh Ritter was a revelation. Having only previously seen him perform as a solo, I was captivated by the way he used his band in concert on Saturday. After opening with achingly intimate, almost solo “Idaho” and “Wildfires,” the band came in like gangbusters on “Mind’s Eye” and the hooky pop nugget “Right Moves.”

Ritter did go the solo route for a mid-set pairing of “Bright Smile” and “The Temptation of Adam,” but the most impressive band effort was the new “Another New World,” a metaphorical sea voyage into the unknown. The atmospheric, impressionistic musical accompaniment swelled to a chaotic catharsis.

UPCOMING
Elvis Perkins in Dearland will be special guests at Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble in Woodstock on Halloween night (Saturday, October 31).

Josh Ritter will be be performing at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Saturday, Dec. 5.

JOSH RITTER SET LIST
Idaho
Wildfires
Mind’s Eye
Right Moves
Wolves
Black Hole? (new song)
Harrisburg
Bright Smile
The Temptation of Adam
The Curse
Monster Ballads
Southern Pacific
Real Long Distance
Empty Heart
Girl in the War
Another New World
Rumors
Lillian, Egypt/Obladi, Oblada
To the Dogs or Whoever
ENCORES
Moon River
Snow Is Gone

Photos by Martin Benjamin